Othersubjects

Chapter 9 - ‘The Rest’ #

Music #

Music? In a chapter on Engineering? Well, yeah. Hear me out, music is a combination of math and signals.

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EUCLID(m, k):
	if k = 0:
		return m
	else:
    	return EUCLID(k,m mod k)

The Euclidean Algorithm Generates Traditional Musical Rhythms (Godfried Toussaint) (PDF)

As another example, the Euclidean Algorithm can be used to distribute drum hits to algorithmically make drum beats

As a really cool example, there’s also ORCΛ by 100 rabbits, which you can see in action in this video from EZBOT on YouTube:

If you get into Modular music systems, like eurorack, it’s really similar to programming too- as you connect modules as if they’re functions and operations- to make a complex musical system. Here’s an example of a Eurorack setup in action from Lightbath on YouTube:

Health #

I’m not a healthcare professional.

I’m going to keep this exceptionally brief, but to be a good hacker/engineer/maker/whatever-you-want-to-be you need to be capable (physically able) and motivated (mentally able) and you should aim to make both as good as you can.

Mental #

Don’t become a total work-a-holic
Keep friendships
Have hobies that aren’t engineering-y
- And don’t force them all of them to be engineering-y. If you spend more time getting it to work in Linux than actually enjoying it, Linux is your hobby. Get a hobby that’s not Linux.

Physical #

Limit caffine intake
Brush yo’ fuckin’ teath
Actually walk around a park and get fresh air

(Touch grass)

Vega looking longigly at Mountain Dew can

Character owned by Vega, art by Talon Creations

World Studies #

[TODO] To help with tolerance and looking at things from new perspectives.

History #

[TODO] inspiration from history and remembering past mistakes

Art, Design, UI & UX #

I know what you’re thinking, “Vega, this guide is about engineering- why should I give a damn about art?”

Because you’ll still probably need to design enclosures, make easy to read documentation, and probably make a user interface or two, and bad design usually leads to both users not being interested in the first place and a poor user experience.

So, even if you’re not super into it, give the Design Chapters a quick skim and look at the parts that seem relevant to you, you’ll want to look at Section 4 - UI/UX for sure.

If you’d like a good laugh, check out this video from Tantacrul roasting the poor design of Sibelius, a popular program for music notation